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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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SXJCCESS^XJILj 






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POULTRY raising! 



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J. D. MARTIN, 

A Farmsr ani Practical Poultry Raiser^ 

BRUCE, Moultrie Co., ILLINOIS. 






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SULLIVAN, ILL.: 

The Progress Publishing Company. 
1887. 






TF3EL KFl^ 



-TO. 



SXJCCEISSIE^U 




J. D. MARTIN, 

A Farmer and Practical Poultry Raiser, 

BRUCE, Moultrie County, I L LI NO I 




SULLIVAN', ILL : 

The Progress Publishing Company. 
1887. 






Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1887, by 

J. D. M A R T I N , 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



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ANNOUNCEMENT. 

To The Public: — A book Is wanted, which every 
one who keeps a half a dozen fowls, can afford to buy; 
and at the same time giving all the needed information 
in plain, short and direct language. The demand for 
useful knowledge, acquired by constant and steady 
practice in the Art of Raising Poultry, is everywhere 
apparent. The call for actual facts, instead of visions 
from impractical theorists, comes from all sections. 

In answer to this demand I offer this small volume, 
all of which is respectfully submitted to the reader. 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 

KIND READER: — In presenting you this small 
volume on Poultry Raising-, I shall not cumber its pages 
with guess-work nor imaginary theories, neither shall I 
copy; but shall give you plain, experimental facts that 
I have learned from close observation in the poultry 
yard; and, if in its pages I do not*give you my methods 
of raising poultry, it will be a failure in the execution 
rather than the plan. 

The time is at hand when impractical theories must 
give way to facts, and in giving you my experience I am 
not located either in the suburbs or heart of some great 
city, but am located in the center of the poultry yard 
with the noise of fowls all around me. The hens are 
singing their daily song and the cocks crowing for joy. 
The turkey hen is repeating her sweet melody and the 
voice of the gobbler is startling the air. The fowls are 
all doing their duty, happily, knowing that at the regular 
hours their food will be supplied them. 

Before attempting to go further with this subject, let 
me ask you if you are going into the business with the 
intention of making it a success. Those who will not 
give their poultry regularattention, shelterthem properly, 
supply them a variety of proper food in liberal quantities, 
and pay a strict attention to all the details of manage- 
ment, need not ever expect to succeed; but if you will 
follow the directions given in this book you can not help 
but succeed. 






ONLY ONE WAY TO LEARN. 

There is only one way to learn the poultry business 
and that is to commence at the bottom and go up. Learn 
as you go. It is one thing to have the true theory but 
quite another to apply it at the right time and in the 
right manner. If you have only a few fowls to begin 
with, all the better. From them you can learn their 
habits and deeds and increase your flock as you learn. 
Do not get the poultry fever and buy one or two thous- 
and to start with before you have learned the business. 
All such work ends in failure. If you know nothing of 
the business six fowls are better to start with than 
twenty. I know of parties who commenced in the thous- 
ands, finally quitting, disappointed and financially ruined. 



POULTRY RAISING AN ART. 

Poultry raising is an art to be acquired only by con- 
stant and continual practice and also by close observa- 
tion, studying the disposition of fowls from day to day. 
You can, by studying their habits for five minutes every 
time you feed, soon have the acquaintance of your fowls 



8 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

SO cultivated that you can tell at a glace if anything is 
wrong with them, and if so, it should have immediate at- 
tention. This you must do if successful. Then if you 
have the proper remedies at hand for each and every 
disease you will have the pleasure of knowing that you 
can branch out into the business without fear of any 
financial loss. If you can master Gapes, Cholera and 
Roup and pay strict attention to feed, shelter and general 
management as herein described you need not loose 
more than one chicken, either young or old out of a hun- 
dred in one year. 



MONEY IN FOWLS. 

There is money in keeping hens to lay eggs. The 
every day layers are the breeds wanted for this, such as 
Houdans, Leghorns, Hamburgs, Spanish and Polish. 

There is money in rearing the large breeds for mar- 
ket, such as Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, 
Langschangs and Cochins. 

There is money in breeding thoroughbred fowls. 
Procure them, rear them, advertise them and sell them. 
No money in giving good stock away. 



THE FIRST THING TO DO. 

The first thing to be done is to decide what you 
wish to procure; what you can most economically furnish 
and sell best. If you wish to furnish both eggs and a 
market fowl you will need two varieties — one of the 
small breeds for eggs, the other one of the large or sitting 
breeds. I would recommend, in order to keep each 
variety pure, to keep them separate and avoid "in and in" 
breeding by changing your cocks every year or two from 
one strain to another. Dispense with all the old ones 
and procure young ones. A cock is in his prime in his 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 9 

second year, though the small breeds appear to mature 
some earlier than the large breeds. In selecting a variety 
of chickens to buy, by all means procure the one you 
fancy most. If so you will be likely to take the best 
care of it. It does not pay to have stock of any kind 
unless you take the best care of it. Feed your fowls 
daily if you wish to make the most of them. 



POULTRY HOUSE. 

Do you intend to start with twenty hens.^ If so we 
must first build them a house to stay in of nights and bad 
weather. A very convenient one and suitable for twenty 
hens and five roosters is built as follows: 

Ten feet long, seven feet wide and five feet to lower 
eaves, seven feet high in center; door to face southeast 
with windows on each side of convenient size to admit 
plenty of sunshine; put two windows on south side also, 
having them to extend from six inches of the eaves to 
within one foot from the bottom or floor; side your house 
with common match boards one inch thick; batton the 
cracks; cover with shingles. For ventilation: At each 
end of the house run hollow tubes six inches square on 
the inside from within ten inches of the floor, perpen- 
dicularly through and extending above the roof two feet. 
These tubes act as purifiers by constantly drawing off 
the impure air from the inside of the house. In cold 
weather when the house is closed the foul air, which is 
greatest at the bottom, is continually passing through 
these tubes, and have a tendency to keep fresh air in 
the house at all times, which is so essential to the health 
of your fowls. You must now arrange your roosting 
poles in the back and about three feet from south side, 
situating them in northwest corner; place your roosting 
poles all on a level to avoid each one struggling for the 



10 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

highest perch. For a floor, fill in with dry dirt dug up 
some where, say from the ditch which is to surround it, 
making the dirt in floor one foot deep. Then two feet 
from door, just inside, build a partition across your hen 
house the narrow way, building it of laths extending 
from floor to top, having your laths about one and one- 
half inches apart, so that your fowls can reach their heads 
through to the feed and water troughs which is to be 
placed in this small hall on the ground, and in this hall 
you can arrange a box or two in which to keep feed, 
gravel, dust, ashes, shells and lime so you can use as you 
need. Make you a lath door to enter the inside from 
the hall, to gather eggs and see to keeping things clean. 
Every morning sprinkle from your dust and ash box fine 
siftings of dust and ashes over their droppings and be 
sure to clean your hen house out clean at least once a 
week. Save these cleanings for your garden and you 
will be amply paid for your trouble, both from your gar- 
den and from your fowls. Now just outside your hen 
house and about two feet from it, dig a trench about ten 
inches deep so as to have everything well drained. If 
possible this house and ground should have natural 
drainage of the surface; if not, see that it gets artificial 
drainage. It will pay you well to do it. Your run sur- 
rounding the house should consist of at least one quarter 
of an acre, fenced in with laths which are cheap, so as to 
hold your fowls. If they are of the large breed a four- 
foot fence with laths sharpened at the top will turn them. 
If of the small breeds your fence must be higher. Make 
you a gate to enter the yard. Early in the spring plow 
up your run — or if set in trees spade up — and sow one- 
half in oats and grass for green food for your fowls during 
summer. The other half you can plant in pota- 
toes and in plowing them you will afford your fowls 
a splendid place to scratch. In the fall sow in 
rye or wheat and you have a splendid grass 
run all winter. In this way you can keep your 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. II 

poultry on the same ground year after year and 
your ground will be yielding you something too. 

DON'T CROWD. 

Twenty hens in one flock in any place and at any 
time is enough and will lay more eggs, keep in better 
health than fifty would if kept in the same space. If you 
keep five hundred let them be in flocks of twenty hens 
and five roosters each. Fence off your run as desired; 
place your house in the center; set the ground in plum 
or dwarf pear trees; set your trees ten feet apart, using 
the kind that does best in your locality. These two kind 
of trees do a great deal better where poultry run than 
where they do not. The curculic attacks on the plum 
renders it almost impossible in some localities to raise 
them, but by keeping poultry among the trees this has 
been greatly overcome and large crops of plums raised. 
The insects also furnish a large amount of animal food 
for your fowls, which is so essential to their continuous 
laying. Your plum and pear trees in a few years will 
bring you on an average about two dollars per tree and 
your hens will clear you a profit of one dollar every year. 



PROCEEDING TO BUSINESS. 

Presuming it is now the first day of January and our 
fowls well housed, we will proceed to business, but for 
fear your house will not be comfortably warm during the 
winter when the temperature of the weather is below zero 
and still falling, you must cover their quarters completely 
over, with straw at least one-foot deep, excepting ven- 
tilating tubes, door and windows so that your fowls will 
not be affected by the sudden changes of weather. Be 
sure your ventilating tubes are working all right so that 
your fowls will have pure air at all times. You must 
now feed your fowls three times a day — at morning, noon 



12 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

and night. Their morning meal should consist of 
middlings and meal mixed with sweet milk and scraps 
from the table, seasoned with black pepper. Their noon 
meal to consist of cooked turnips and potatoes, adding 
a small allowance of wheat. At night feed whole corn 
parched and sprinkled with lime. Feed everything hot, 
eivin^ warm water to drink. You must feed shells. 
Roast oyster or mussel shells in your stove pans, pound 
them up and feed them in a nice clean place. Your lay- 
ing hens need all they will eat. Do not forget to give 
them gravel. And a dust box they must have. Make 
it about two feet long, one and one-half feet wide and 
six inches deep; fill two-thirds full of road dust and 
ashes; sprinkle two tablespoonfuls of sulphur through, and 
they will enjoy a dust bath every day if it is kept dry. 
When they scratch it out fill up again. Now if you have 
arranged your nest boxes so that the sun can shine on 
them, you will get eggs. You can not help it. If you 
feed them my Cholera and Roup mixtures, I find they 
lay more eggs, by feeding it once per week, than where 
it is not used. It appears like fowls need something like 
it as a stimulant on cold days. If you wish to set hens 
this month and not remove them to the hatching room, 
you niust arrange them a very warm nest connected with 
a place to dust themselves and to get feed and water. 
A very good plan is to get you a common sized boot 
box, cover the bottom, except where the nest is to be 
placed, with dirt about three inches deep. In the end 
you place the nest put about what will make, w^hen 
pressed down, three inches of manure fresh from the 
stable; on top of this put two inches of dirt, placing some 
fine straw on top of the dirt and be sure to shape the 
nest so that the eggs will not roll out. Now cover half of 
the entire length of the box with boards nailed on, com- 
mencing at the end in which the nest is situated. Now 
place a drinking vessel containing water and feed in the 
box. Everything is now ready to set the hen, provided 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 1 3 

you have placed your box in the hall as instructed in 
building poultry house. About dark is the best time to 
remove the hen from laying nest to setting box. Nearly 
one hour before you intend to remove the hen heat a 
brick very warm and lay it in the nest until it has 
thoroughly warmed the nest; have your eggs warm — not 
too warm — and place them in the nest and remove your 
setter, putting her on the nest very easily; now cover 
the other half of the setting box with laths, leaving plenty 
of room between them so that the hen will have fresh 
air. Do not nail the laths on but have them movable so 
that you can feed and water the hen and inspect the nest 
to see if everything is working nicely. Sprinkle the eggs 
once per week with milk warm water. The day before 
the brooder comes off, which will be on the twentieth 
day, you must dip the eggs in tepid water and then put 
back in the nest and you will have but very few chicks 
die in the shell. On the twenty-first day you will have 
added to your stock of poultry a nest of nice chicks. 

Your object should now be to keep them that way, 
but here the trouble commences. 



MANAGEMENT OE THE CHICK. 

As soon as the chick is hatched it is exposed to the 
lice which infests the hen, unless you have used pre- 
caution and entirely rid them from your hen house. If 
you have mixed my Gape preventative with coal oil and 
rubbed all roosting poles and sprinkled over hen house 
and kept it perfectly clean, not allowing droppings to 
accumulate over one week, they will be free from lice; 
but if not, the lice from the hen will now lay hold of the 
chick and in a short time it will be gaping. To avoid 
this gaping business, lice or no lice, apply my preventa- 
tive as soon as the chick is dry and in fifteen days after 
you use it, your trouble is over. For extended treatise 



14 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

on Gapes see another place. You must now clean the 
nest box out clean and replace with dry dirt; replace the 
nest with some clean straw; sprinkle three or four drops 
of carbolic acid, diluted in water, around all parts of the 
box. As the weather is now generally cold you can 
leave the hen and chicks in the box. Feed and water is 
all your trouble now. 

You must not feed the little chicks in the box where 
their feed will co-mingle with their droppings — this must 
be distinctly understood — for right here lies one of the 
secrets of success. Should you follow feeding in this 
manner you may expect disastrous failure. Every time 
you feed them while they are in this setting box you 
must lay a clean piece of paper, shingle or board of 
some kind in their box to eat fromx. After they get one 
week old you can use a saucer and it can be washed 
clean after using and then used again. Give them milk 
to drink and at this age it must be given sweet. Give 
also plenty of water to drink, with a little lime added.. 
This is very essential and you should see that they get 
it. The growth of the bones and feathers consume lime 
and they must have it in some form. 



WHAT TO FEED. 

If young chickens are not fed with some regularity 
and with food that is nourishing, indigestion sets in and 
they pine away and die. You should not feed them until 
twenty-four hours old. When first hatched they need 
hovering more than feed, and should the hen be restless 
and not wish to brood them, first feed her all the corn 
she will eat, giving her plenty of water to drink and she 
will generally remain contented. If at this time you 
have set two or more hens and you wish to put all of the 
chicks with one hen you can do so by covering her 
quarters so as to make them dark, leaving them for 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 1 5 

twenty-four hours in the dark with jnst enough light to 
see how to eat and drink. If you do not thus arrange, 
the hen may peck all the chicks excepting the ones she 
hatched. A good sized hen may care for twenty-five 
chicks nearly as well as ten, yet they must have more 
room than ten. After the twenty-four hours have 
elapsed, if your well-to-do wife has any light bread she 
must dampen some of it with sweet milk and feed to the 
new^-comers and give them a special invitation to make 
themselves happy and contented and that she will be at 
their service for anything they may want. You must be 
sure now to fulfill the promise you have so faithfully 
given and when the clock warns you that one hour has 
passed since you last fed the little fellows you must 
waste no time in getting back with some more light bread 
and do not forget to take some water with you this 
time and a small pie pan or some shallow vessel to drink 
from. If you have not light bread, which is the best feed 
young chicks get the first day, mix middlings and meal 
together and scald it with hot water; meal alone should 
never be given young chicks, if raw. Feed every hour 
for the first day you commence to feed. Feed every two 
hours the second day. Kow I wish to make one point 
clear: you must not feed young chicks more, than they 
want, as the food will be left to sour and mix with their 
droppings and be eaten again. In hot weather food will 
sour very soon. 'Feed but little and feed it often' is the 
point to be noticed now. The second day feed cracked 
wheat and finall}^ whole wheat wdien they can swallow it. 
Such feed is better than soft feed as it will not sour so soon 
if left by them. Millet seed at this age is one of the best 
articles of food that ever was given to a young chick. 



THEY MUST BE KEPT DRY. 

Here lies the main idea: After your feed has been 
given your chicks you do not want to lose your feed and 



l6 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RALSING, 

chicks besides. Therefore, I can not impress too firmly 
on your mind the necessity of keeping your chicks dry. 
Your little fellows can not stand to get all drabbled and 
wet even in August. You must have a shed or coop for 
them to shelter in during rains and they must not be let 
out until the grass and weeds are dry. Do not let them 
out of their coops in the morning until the dew is nearly 
all gone. 

WARMTH. 

The young fowl is very short of feathers and if the 
weather is very cold will need some protection from the 
cold. If you have a shed somewhere that you can shut 
them in, put them there; if not, get you some cheese 
cloth or as thin muslin as you can get. Make you a 
frame eight feet long and two feet wide and about eigh- 
teen inches high; make it of light material; tack a lath 
every two feet on top of the frame and then stretch your 
cloth around the sides, ends and top; cut you a small 
door for them to go in from. Now you can place your 
hen and chicks in this and place your roosting coop at 
the end and the whole thing on a nice grassy plot and 
your chicks have the nicest little run you ever saw. You 
can move them daily to fresh ground. You must not let 
your young fowls roost on the damp ground; make your 
coops with board floors and they will then be vermin 
proof also. If you have plenty of money and wish to 
build something more costly than a muslin coop, you can 
build a low house sloping to the south with top covered 
with thick glass and you will also have a splendid place 
for your chicks in cool weather. 



GREEN FOOD. 



The craving appetite of fowls for green food of some 
kind is visible in all poultry yards, and if your young 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 1/ 

fowls are confined where they cannot get green food you 
must supply them. It will not take long to cut some 
young grass with a knife and feed to them; cut it about 
one-quarter of an inch long and throw in where they can 
get it. Your old fowds when confined must have green 
food in some shape. 



ANIMAL FOOD. 

Animal food in some form young chicks must have 
if they are confined where they cannot get it. Feed 
them, daily, a small quantity of meat of some kind; if 
fresh all the better. If you live in the city get a small 
piece of offal from the butcher daily and give them. But 
if you live on the farm your cheapest and best animal 
food will be sweet milk, and if given in sufficient quan- 
tities will answer very well for the meat diet. When 
your chicks get about three weeks old and older feed 
them any and all kinds of milk, sweet or sour, and when 
they get of age sufficient to swallow it, let their main 
food be corn. The mineral part of their food must not 
be neglected, which is gravel, sand and shells broken in 
small pieces. This completes the food from the animal, 
mineral and vegetable kingdoms and if you keep feeding 
will in time mature the chick into the full grown fowl. 



A HATCHING ROOM. 

If you wish to be successful hatching eggs, you must 
arrange so that laying hens cannot lay with those that 
are setting. No eggs will hatch well if the hen that is 
setting on them must have a fight every day to keep 
others out from her nest, thus jarring the eggs and prob- 
ably breaking some. The most convenient way, after 
the weather gets warm, is to have a room of some kind 



1 8 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

by itself for them. I have rooms, ten by twelve, made 
of common rough plank one inch thick; roof covered 
with boards. I have no windows in it, barely enough 
light to see to eat and scratch. This prevents their 
quarreling. I have dirt floor filled in ten inches deep, 
with their nests arranged around the wall. "When a hen 
wishes to set you should remove her about dark from the 
laying room to setting room; confine her on the nest for 
the first two days, giving her food and drink; afterwards 
arrange the nest so that she can get off when she chooses, 
but do not let her from the room; keep the door closed. 
You must now provide plenty of food at hand, at all 
times, where she can get it. Feed mainly corn as it will 
maintain the heat of the body. Feed some kind of green 
food daily. Keep the dust box and gravel handy and do 
not forget to give plenty of water to drink. They can all 
eat and drink from the same vessel when not confined 
on the nest. 



HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 

To those who have no knowledge of the poultry 
business and are thinking of engaging in the same, you 
will find these suggestions of benefit to you. There is 
plenty of room and money in the poultry business for 
those who go at it in a business manner and will use 
persistent energy to learn it. There is yet room at the 
top; but there is only one way to learn it. Get some 
system or work on Poultry Raising; read it over and 
over carefully until you become familiar with all the de- 
tails of management. Start with one variety and if only 
a few of them all the better. Learn all you can about 
your fowls by close observation. Study their habits and 
needs daily. After you have been through one year's 
work, your experience and practice will be worth money 
to you. If you have been successful with a few do not 
increase too fast or you may get snowed under. If you 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. I9 

have kept twentj^-five on your small lot do not forget 
that you cannot keep fifty on the same space. In all my 
varied experience I find it very easy to get too many. 
Fifty hens on a twenty-acre tract if kept in one flock is 
too many; under all conditions and circumstances do 
not keep over twenty-five head together. If you keep 
several flocks and will keep them a good distance apart 
they will do all the better. If you are going into the 
business you must make up your mind to work. If you 
cannot bear the idea of work by all means "launch your 
boat" in some other direction. Success in raising poultry 
means work, work, work! The successful poultryman is 
the one who has forethought and patience, who makes 
up his mind that he is in no small business, reading his 
poultry book carefully and working out the suggestions 
contained therein. The unsuccessful poultryman wastes 
his time in meditating on the empty visions of imprac- 
tical theorists, who envies book knowledge and neglects 
practicing the principles that insure success. Don't 
think that you are crowded out of the poultry business 
because you are not located near some large city; don't 
let such a false idea rest upon your mind for even one 
moment. In these days of rapid transit you can get 
your poultry to a first-class market in twenty-four hours, 
if you live on through lines of transportation. If you do 
not, you will get them there soon enough with a very 
small expense. First decide what you wish to produce. 
Then commence right where you are. 



VENTILATION. 

The lack of ventilation is one of the most destructive 
agents. Fowls to do well must not be deprived of fresh 
air. It is just as essential that a fowl have fresh air as it 
is with a person. Deprive your hens of fresh air and 
you will wonder why you get so few eggs. The natural 



20 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

law is that they require the pure unadulterated fresh air 
of heaven. When you construct your poultry house see 
that it is properly ventilated. The great mistake of 
farmers is that their poultry become too much crowded. 
If the size of their house and ventilating tubes are 
capable of keeping twenty fowls in good condition, they 
will put about fifty into that space. They get no eggs. 
Their fowls begin to lose an interest in things about 
them. They act sleeppy, begin to droop, pine away and 
die with all the symptoms of disease. All who know 
that this can be prevented should at once see to it. 
Properly construct your house, put the proper number 
into it, give them the proper food and proper tonics to 
keep them in health and you will find your fowls are 
paying you a profit instead of a loss. There are prin- 
ciples which underlie poultry raising the same as there 
are principles which underlie farming, and whenever you 
are trampling these principles under foot you are at the 
same time trampling your success under foot. 



WATERING FOWLS. 

I find the best method of watering fowls is to water 
them from some old iron vessel, keeping water in the 
vessel at all times so that the fowls can help themselves 
when they wish.~ Their water troughs should be kept in 
the same place all the time. If you change your troughs 
from one place to another every day or two you will 
have some thirsy fowls at all times. Keep preventives 
of cholera in their water to destroy the germs of disease, 
provided you have them. 



MILK FOR FOWLS. 

For chickens of all ages and sizes and all varieties, 
from the miniature Bantam to the largest chicken that 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 21 

wears feathers— the Light Brahma — milk to drink is one 
of the most essential articles of food. It contains 
nutriment for all parts of the body. For chicks under 
three weeks old it should be given sweet; after three 
weeks old they can drink milk either sweet or sour with- 
out any injury to their health. For laying hens the 
value of milk to drink can not be over estimated. In- 
stead of giving all the sour milk to the pigs give at least 
one-half of it to your fowls and notice which pays you 
best. If you are raising poultry extensively you will 
find it largely to your interest to keep several of the best 
milch cows you can obtain. Sweet milk given to your 
fowls while the animal heat is still retained is better than 
if given in any other condition. Feed it while still warm 
occasionally, if not all the time. The farmer who gives 
sweet milk to his laying hens has solved the problem of 
producing plenty of eggs cheap. Try it and in the end 
you will agree with me. 



NESTS. 

I can not urge too strongly on having good nests 
for your laying and setting hens. If you have only one 
kind of chickens, all being about the same size, you only 
need one size for a nest. Make them a nest with plenty 
of room; if you do not, you must not grumble when you 
go out to the hen house and find that your setters have 
broken two or three eggs each. There are many differ- 
ent ways of making nests. Make the kind that suits you 
best, but be sure to make it with plenty of room. After 
you get your nest made whitewash inside and outside, 
and if you have my Lice Exterminator saturate the 
joints and cracks with a very small portion mixed with 
coal oil. After your nest box is completed put about 
two inches of dirt in the bottom and on top of this about 
two inches of oats straw if you have it, if not use any 



22 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

kind you have. Then shape your nest to fit the hen's 
body. Now if you wish to set a hen put your eggs in, 
not over thirteen in number for a large hen; put your 
hen on about dark and remove the nest to the setting 
room, if you have one; and if not in spring and summer 
you can place the nest in a good shade out in the open 
air. In your orchard is a very good place. Then get 
two planks at least one foot wide and eight or ten feet 
long. Place them on edge, the width of your nest apart, 
having them come up closely on each side of your nest 
and extending their full length on the ground. Then 
nail laths over the top of them every one and one-half 
inches apart, the entire length of your plank or you can 
lay boards on the top and weight them down; you need 
not nail as you will want to place feed and water in the 
run daily. Now dig up a place in one end for her to scratch 
in. Keep plenty of water, feed and gravel by her and 
you have one of the most complete places outside of a 
hatching room I ever saw. You must sprinkle the eggs 
twice per week if the weather is dry and do not forget to 
sprinkle them thoroughly the day before the brood 
comes off If the weather is windy it is best to clean 
out the nest, replacing nice, clean straw and leave your 
hen and chicks in this run a few days, by feeding and 
watering regularly. 



A SHADE FOR FOWLS- 

Fowls to do well in summer must have some pro- 
tection from the direct rays of the sun. This can be ac- 
complished by setting out both trees and bushes. A 
fowl prefers the shadow of a bush to that of anything 
else. For trees I would recommend setting out either 
plum or pear trees as they can be set close together. 
For bushes I would recommend gooseberry, raspberry 
and currant. Set them around close to the fence and 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 23 

their fruit as well as their shade will be relished by the 
fowls. If you prefer you can plant sunflower seed, and 
as they have a very wide leaf it makes a splendid shade. 
They will grow in most any kind of soil and their seed 
is among the best winter food we can get. I once saw 
a poultry yard where fowls were kept by the thousand 
and there was not a shade tree nor a bush in the yard. 
In a short time I heard of the same party selling out 
what few fowls he had left and quitting the business 
financially embarassed. Fowls will not thrive nor do 
well if they have not a shade of some kind in summer. 
If you have no shade do not count on much profit in 
warm, v^eather. The fewer the mistakes you make, the 
greater will be your profit. Therefore, as they are 
pointed out to you do not go ahead and make the same 
mistake. Attention to such things is the true way to 
success. 



ROOSTS- 

It is of the utmost importance that your poultry 
have good roosts. Some breeders recommend having 
your fowls roost on the ground; others that their roosts 
be eighteen inches high. My plan, and I find it very 
successful, is to have the roosting poles about three feet 
high, and to build it is very easily done. Get four hooks 
with holes drilled in the top end to nail to the top of the 
hen house. Get four straps of leather or rope; fasten 
one to each hook and the other end to a cross piece two 
inches wide and one inch thick. You now have a scaf- 
fold across which you can place your roosting poles, 
eighteen inches apart. Let the roosts be in the back 
part of the house and just in front of your first roosting 
pole make fast one end of a very wide plank across which 
cleats are made fast every few inches. Put the other end 
on the ground and have your plank of sufficient length 
that it will not be too straight. Your fowls can walk up 



24 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RA1SL\G. 

on this plank and get to the roost without much effort. 
Your heaviest Brahma can reach the top the same as 
your highest flying Leghorn. You then have your fowls 
up from the ground which is so much better for their 
health as the foul air in the hen house is near the floor, 
they avoid breathing the worst of it. It does not matter 
who says for them to perch low, if you arrange as it 
should be, they will be healthier when perching higher. 
So do not make a mistake by having low roosting poles 
or probably none at all. Your fowls with such a roost 
as described can come down the same as they go up. 



LOOKOUT FOR VERMIN. 

It is too often the case with farmers that they do 
not provide suitable accommodations for their fowls. 
Sometimes they have no hen house at all. Others have 
houses so dilapidated that their fowls are generally more 
comfortable on the outside than on the inside. Your 
houses should be so tight as to keep out weasels, minks, 
skunks and rats. After your patient wife has spent a 
whole summer working and raising poultry, it is very 
annoying as well as a great loss to have them half killed 
by a weasel or mink. He comes at the hour of midnight 
when you are sound asleep, and if you do not have a 
tight hen house or coop, do not blame anybody but 
yourself. It is natural for the blood-thirsty weasel to 
see how many he can kill in one night. He will also 
take the best as well as the poorest of the flock, but it 
generally happens that he gets the ones you value most, 
such as the muffled and "keep-sakes" of the family. If 
your poultry roost in trees, the owls will claim their 
share and issue an ''attachment" on the same. Rats are 
one of the worst enemies of the young fowl. If they 
harbor near the poultry yard take your cats and dogs 
and commence war on them at once, and do not hoist 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 25 

the flag of truce until the last enemy is destroyed. I 
have had some very valuable experience with rats and 
weasels. The first year I raised poultry, in the month 
of August I lost every young fowl I had and part of my 
old ones in less than forty-eight hours by a pack of 
weasels. And I have had the rats take my pets one by 
one. From such experience I learned: "what is worth 
doing is worth doing well." Therefore, you must be 
prepared for all emergencies if you wish to make poultry 



AVOID MISTAKES. 

Now to beginners in raising poultry, you must avoid 
the mistakes pointed out by others and it will save you 
time and money. So if you have no hen house now is 
the time to build. Make small coops for your young 
fowls but do not get them too small; make enough to ac- 
commodate the number you intend to keep, and by all 
means do not put too many in one coop. One hen and 
her brood of chicks is plenty for one coop, unless it is a 
very large one; if so you must partition it off so as to 
keep but few together. Make your coops tolerably high 
so that your chicks will have plenty of fresh air. You 
should bore three or four small auger holes in it for ven- 
tilation. Make a board floor for a bottom and a door 
that will close tight and you will then have no trouble 
with vermin at night, if you keep the door closed. You 
should build your coops and hen houses before you 
need them. In keeping poultry you must always look 
ahead. No "do as you like way" will meet with success. 
As soon as your chicks are large enough you should 
get them off the ground by removing them where you 
intend to winter them. In two or three nights they 
will be no trouble about housing and will be well pleased 
with their new situation. 



26 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

JUNE HATCHES. 

If you will handle chickens as they should be, June 
and July chickens are as easily raised as those hatched 
in March or April. To hatch them now you need plenty 
of dirt under the nest and if the weather is dry, sprinkle 
the eggs oftener than you do in the spring. After they 
are hatched you must provide them, a good shade. Feed 
them plenty of sand, small gravel and pulverized char- 
coal. Give plenty of water to drink. My June and July 
hatches are my best summer layers, and, if allowed to run 
at large, do not require a great deal of feed. But if con- 
fined they must have a variety of food. Pullets hatched 
in June v/ill generally commence laying in January and 
lay all summer. 



LOOKOUT FOR CHOLER 



If you have had cases of cholera in the spring and 
have cured them, your fowls all being in good health, 
you must not think they will stay that way all the time 
unless you use some precautions against it. In summer 
and autumn you miust be on your guard. Keep every- 
thing clean. In hot weather all the filth that is left on 
the ground and in your hen house begins to decay sooner 
than in cool vv^eather, fermentation sets in sooner and 
there is more danger from cholera. In hot weather your 
hen house should be cleaned out every other day. Dur- 
ing warm weather your fowls may have too much 
looseness of the bowels; if so you should feed more dry 
feed, such as wheat and corn. Feed more pepper 
than you have been in the habit of doing. Never 
let a week go by unless you feed the Cholera Mixture. 
It is a tonic and a preventive of this dreaded disease. 
It is now near the time when your fowls begin to moult 
and if they become diseased it retards their moulting. 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 2/ 

WHAT TO FEED WHILE MOULTING. 

Fowls, like animals, shed their coat annually. The 
drain on the system during the process of moulting is 
very great and it is of the utmost importance to under- 
stand what to feed during this period. Early hatched 
fowls generally get through all right, moulting, but later 
hatched ones do not always moult safely. In the summer 
while moulting is going on a few feathers only come out 
at a time and these are at once replaced with a set of 
new ones, but later in the fall more feathers come out at 
once and are not so rapidly replaced. This is w^hy the 
late hatched bird is in danger while moulting. If you 
have a comfortable hen house place them in this where 
the sun can shine on them at least a portion of the time. 
Their feed should consist of middlings and meal mixed 
with sweet milk, adding a little charcoal w^ith it oc- 
casionally. Wheat is one of the best feeds while moult- 
ing. Feed pepper freely, giving as much sweet sub- 
stance as possible. Moulting always occurs with the 
wild bird when it has an abundance of food. Therefore, 
it is necessary that they should be well fed with a 
variety of stimulating food. 



LAYING. 

Arranged by a providential hand and in behalf of 
man, the hen brings forth her fruit. It is a kind that is 
relished by all. The poor can have at hand this valuable 
fruit the same as the rich. The hen and her fecundity 
are won, not by paintings and red-tape congratulations, 
but by protection, quietness and a variety of food. The 
hen sang forth her lay thousands of years ago according 
to the divine testimony which has been handed down to 
us. It has been said that man should have dominion 
over the fowl. Let us make the most of it by having the 



28 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

egg basket to decide it. Instances are on record of hens 
laying annually three hundred and twenty-five eggs. 
This is told only by the word, enormous. Two 
hundred, with an average amount of feed and close 
attention, keeping your hens healthy, is not a very large 
yield of eggs in one year. If you can not get your every 
day layers to lay until moulting causes them to stop, you 
may know there is something wrong and this should 
have immediate attention. For a great while I could not 
account for this ceasing of egg production. I would feed 
my hens a variety of food, give them shells, gravel and 
ground bone, and yet I would not get the all purpose 
that I was keeping them for — eggs. My trouble now was 
cholera or roup, yet I did not know it then, but with the 
experience I now have I know it was present in the in- 
cipient stage. Since I discovered my preventative I 
never have had such a thing happen. I keep an accurate 
account of all my poultry expenses and all my income 
and as long as the scales are turning the way they are I 
am not the man to complain about hens laying eggs. 
To make the most of our fowls we must have them do- 
ing something while around us; if we do not, we are 
loosing. I know there is a vast difference in the pro- 
duction of eggs from those that are fed and from those 
that are not, but the greatest difference is between those 
that are healthy and those that are not. Disease will 
always stop egg production if it is the vital parts affected. 
Therefore, the turning point: whether loss or gain for 
you in the poultry business, is based on this one 
word — disease. 



RAISING CHICKENS IN AUTUMN AND 
EARLY WINTER. 

Spring and summer is not the only time chickens 
can be raised with profit. We can raise them very easily 
every month in the year by a little extra preparations 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 29 

and the profits from those hatched from October to the 
middle of January are greater than when hatched at any- 
other period of the year, if they are sold in large cities 
for broilers. I liv^e near the banks of a small stream. I 
have a poultry house dug out in the bank, so you see it 
is very warm.. It is drained inside and outside so as to 
be perfectly dry. I fill about four inches of gravel in the 
bottom and then put some clean stravv^ on top of this. I 
now cover the top of the hen house completely over with 
straw, excepting the ventilating tubes. There is a door 
and window in the south side. This is now ready for the 
chicks. But in order to get your hens to set: you must 
have some of the Asiatic or setting breeds. Brahmas, 
Cochins, Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes are very good 
for the purpose; but for raising chicks you need some- 
thing that feathers very rapidly, as Leghorn or Houdan, 
the latter being the most hardy. You can set any kind 
of eggs under your setters and raise any kind you wish. 
If you have the Langschang set some of their eggs. If 
you have a comfortable hen house and feed your fowls 
as directed you can collect eggs on the coldest days. 
Keep your eggs where they will not freeze and set them 
when you get ready. Do not forget the stable manure 
now in preparing nests for setters. Put her in the 
"setting box" as directed and leave her with the other 
fowls to help keep warm. Sprinkle eggs once per week 
with warm water. As soon as your chicks are hatched 
remove to the house prepared for them; put the hen and 
chicks in it and they will be as happy and contented as 
they are in summer. Feed them the same as you do in 
summer, excepting you must give them green food of 
some kind and a small portion of meat of some kind. 
Keep your dust box ready; have water to drink, and 
keep plenty of small gravel and sand Vv^here they can get 
it at all times. Along about the middle of January or 
first of February you can get fifty cents apiece for your 
chicks or twenty-five cents per pound, in Chicago. In 



30 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

New York or Boston you can get more. Invest some of 
your surplus change in this manner and see if it will not 
pay better than Government bonds. By this method 
you can raise chickens the year round and have produce 
to sell every month. In this way, brother farmers, you 
can soon release the mortgage from the farm, provided 
there is one on it. If you are not so fortunately situated 
as to live on the banks of a stream, you can certainly 
arrange some way to keep the temperature from freezing 
the little fellows by covering your hen house with sod, 
straw or sawdust. If your chicks all look alike you will 
get more per pound as broilers than where they are of 
all colors, shapes and sizes. Hence, a mighty point in 
favor of thoroughbred fowls. 



CONSTITUENT OF AN EGG. 

To know what the egg is composed of is very im- 
portant to poultry raisers, as it is of the first importance 
that our hens must have the wherewith to form the egg 
if they produce them. They will generally get all of 
these themselves if allowed free range, but they will not 
get them in sufficient quantities to produce eggs as they 
should and we must therefore assist them. Chemically 
the shell of the egg is composed chiefly of carbonate of 
lime, with a small quantity of phosphate of lime and 
animal mucus. The yolk of an egg consists of oil, 
albumen, gelatine and water. The white of an egg is 
composed chemically of water, albumen, mucus, soda, 
sulphuretted hydrogen gas and benzoin acid. The shell 
material is generally the most difficult for the hen to 
obtain, but it is a great deal depending upon the situation 
and soil of the place they are kept. Now if you Avill 
feed your hens something that contains all of these 
materials you will get eggs. A hen is a natural walking 
machine for producing eggs, if fed egg material. Mid- 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 3 1 

dlings, meal, wheat, corn, oats, millet seed, broom corn 
seed, oyster shells, ground bone and milk contain all that 
is required in the formation of an egg. If you will 
supply these articles in sufficient quantities, your hens 
being in health, they will lay eggs and can not help it. 



UNFRUITFUL EGGS. 

It appears like all hens will sometimes lay eggs that 
will not hatch. This being the case we should endeavor 
to find as soon as possible those that are not fertile and 
relieve the hen of their care. About the eighth day of 
incubation get a piece of stiff paper and make it just the 
size to go on outside of your lamp flue; cut a hole in one 
side about the size of an egg; now put this around your 
lamp flue; light the lamp, holding the egg between your 
eye and the light. If the shadow which it forms wavers 
keep the egg as the wavering is caused by the motion of 
the chick within. If it remains stationary throw it away 
and relieve 1;he hen of its care. If the eggs have been 
fresh laid the chick will be developed earlier than other- 
wise. With fresh eggs you can, about the fifteenth day, 
by applying your ear to the egg, hear a grating noise 
within; but if the eggs are not fresh this will not happen 
until about two days longer. The nutriment at this 
time will be gradually entering the body of the chick and 
in this manner the little chick is nourished until the time 
appointed by nature for it to work its way out. It keeps 
pegging and growing until the raised portion on the bill 
pips or breaks the shell. It then works its way from the 
shell afterwards the raised portion of its bill drops off 



HOW TO PRESERVE EGGS. 

Get a small sized box, about one foot square. Take 
common salt and heat it in some vessel, as your stove 



32 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

pan, until thoroughly dry. Then put a layer of salt, one 
inch thick, in the bottom of the box, then put in a layer 
of fresh eggs, small end down and far enough apart so as 
not to touch one another; next put a layer of salt, then 
another layer of eggs until the box is full, letting the 
last layer be salt. Nail a cover on the box. Keep them 
in a cool place, but not where they will freeze in winter. 
In a cellar is a good place to keep them. Turn them 
every day, first on the side, then on the end, until all 
sides and ends have been down. Then begin the rota- 
tion again moving it once every day. Eggs put up in 
this manner will keep from September the first until 
New Years, and no one can tell but w4iat they were laid 
the day before, even by the test of eating. There are 
several methods of preserving eggs but after trying all 
you will say this is the best and cheapest. After you 
take the eggs from the salt you can feed the salt to your 
stock as it does not injure the salt for them in the least. 



HOW TO FAIL. 

Within the pages of the history of poultry raising 
are recorded failures as w^ell as success. 

All who enter the business thinking it is easy and 
all to be done is to procure fowls, build a shed and let 
them scratch for a living; to clean out the shed once a 
year and, in fact, let the hens run the business, except to 
gather the eggs, will certainly realize a failure. 

If you wish to fail provide no hen house. 

If you wish to fail have no ventilating tubes in your 
hen house. 

If you wish to fail keep forty where twenty only 
ought to be. 

If you Avish to fail let your fowls go half starved. 

If you wish to fail breed "in and in" all the time. 

If you wish to fail sit in the shade most of the time. 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 33 

If you wish to fail pay no attention to feed and water. 
If you wish to fail commence in the thousands. 
If you wish to fail have no preventatives at hand for 
gapes, cholera and roup. 



HOW TO SUCCEED. 

If you wish to succeed you must realize that you are 
in a business that requires work. Attention to little 
things and in the right time is the key to success. 

If you wish to succeed give your fowls food and 
water daily at regularintervals and in sufficient quantities. 

If you wish to succeed feed a variety that contains 
all the ingredients required in the formation of an egg. 

If you wish to succeed you must have a good shelter 
for your fowls. 

If you wish to succeed you must confine your fowls 
to a certain extent. 

If you wish to succeed you must not keep your fowls 
in close confinement, unless in a movable coop. 

If you wish to succeed you must not keep over 
twenty-five in one flock. 

If you wish to succeed you must avoid "close" and 
''in and in" breeding. 

If you wish to succeed you must change your cocks 
every year or two. 

If you wish to succeed you must keep young fowls 
out of dews and rains. 

If you wish to succeed you must feed young fowls a 
variety of stimulating food. 

If you wish to succeed you must not have too many 
young fowls roosting together. 

If you wish to succeed do not let chickens and ducks 
roost together. 

If you wish to succeed you must have some sure pre- 
ventatives of gapes cholera and roup at hand. 



34 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

FALL AND WINTER MANAGEMENT- 

It is now presumed that your chicks have attained 
size and age enough to go to their regular winter quar- 
ters. If you have not already divided them, you must 
now divide them into flocks of twenty pullets and five 
cockerels each. But if you do not intend to save any 
eggs from your pullets for hatching purposes during fall 
or early winter, you need only to put three cockerels 
Avith twenty pullets. Divide your entire flock in this 
manner that you intend wintering. Place them in your 
poultry house. Your early hatched pullets will com- 
mence getting fat as soon as a few cool nights come. 
Their combs will assume a deep red color which is an 
indication that they are ready for business. Pullets to 
lay now must be hatched in February or March and well 
fed. Sometimes your pullets are too fat to lay; feeding 
oats remedies this. Oats are a splendid food in fall and 
early spring. When you find how many fowls you have 
to winter you must then prepare food for them. Have 
it ready before hand and do not let every day provide 
for itself. In all you do look ahead. "Be prepared" is 
a good motto for the poultryman. You must see that 
the bins for the fowls is well filled with wheat, corn, 
turnips, potatoes, cabbage, broom corn and cane seed. 
See that you have collected plenty of road dust. You 
can get it in the fall in the public road; put it in boxes 
and barrels and it is then ready for use, but be sure and 
keep it dry; if you let it get wet it spoils it. Place it 
somewhere handy, as in the hall in your poultry house 
and you can then use as needed. Save dry wood ashes 
also to mix with the road dust. Now put your dust box 
in some corner of the poultry house so that your fowls 
can enjoy a bath whenever they feel so disposed. You 
must provide them oyster or mussel shells for winter. 
You can procure oyster shells in large towns. Mussel 
shells you can pick up along creeks and rivers. Roast 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 35 

them until you can take a hammer and stone and easily 
break them in small pieces. You can then put them in 
a barrel and they will be ready for use. Gravel you 
must not neglect. Before winter sets in go to some 
creek or river where you can get gravel and sand; haul 
it home and keep in a dry place. You will then know 
that you have made sure of this important article. Get 
you a barrel of lime, let it air slake; it will then be ready 
for use. Get some iron vessel for your fowls to drink 
from. Be sure you have arranged warm nests and hung 
so that the sun will shine on them. Now feed your 
fowls as directed to feed in January, seeing that they are 
well supplied with food from the vegetable, animal and 
mineral kingdoms. Feed your preventative of cholera 
every week and you will be well paid in eggs for so 
doing. Because it is winter do not think your poultry 
house needs no cleaning out. Every morning sprinkle 
road dust and ashes over their droppings and clean out 
once per week unless it is frozen so hard as to be too 
tedious; if so you can leave until it thaws a little, but 
you must sprinkle plenty of dust over the droppings 
daily to keep things clean. Your roosting poles must 
be movable. Take them down every morning and stand 
them in one corner so that your fowls can not perch 
during the day, but do not forget to replace them before 
night. If you have wheat or oat straw cover the floor in 
front of the roosting poles with this, making it three or 
four inches deep. Just back of this and in front of your 
first roosting pole make fast a wide plank to prevent the 
straw from mixing with the droppings under the roost. 
You can now sprinkle wheat, oats or corn over this straw 
and have them scratch for it. But be sure to change the 
straw every few days. This will pay you well for the 
time it takes as your fowls need exercise. The hen house 
should be covered with straw to keep the combs of your 
fowls from freezing. Fowls with large combs are easily 
frozen and this in a degree prevents their laying. 



36 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

THE TURKEY. 

The domesticated turkey traces its origin to the wild 
bird of Mexico. As now bred there are six different 
varieties, viz.: The Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, 
Black, Buff and Slate. All are very nice and profitable 
to handle. The Bronze and Narragansett being the two 
largest. The White Holland lays the most eggs and is 
very hardy. In raising them choose the variety that 
suits you best. A cross between the White Holland 
gobbler and the Bronze turkey hen is a very desirable 
bird to breed for market, being hardier than either alone; 
yet they will not produce as many eggs as the White 
Holland. 

The turkey is one of the most difficult fowls to raise 
in the poultry yard. When young it is very tender, but 
w^hen grown it will endure the blasts of a winter storm 
in the top of a tree and seem to enjoy it. There is more 
failure in raising turkeys than in chickens, ducks and 
geese combined. If you understand the principles of 
raising them it is one of the main fowls to raise, because 
it pays. Lice kills two-fifths of all the turkeys hatched 
in the United States in the first twenty days; indiges- 
tion kills fully one-fifth. It appears that farmers' wives 
have not many of them solved the problem of raising 
turkeys. Hence, the general failure. 

I propose to now give you the details so minutely 
that they will enable you to become successful. While 
it is true that during the summer and fall turkeys need 
large range in pastures where they can obtain a large 
part of their living, yet it is fully as true that during the 
laying and hatching season they need and must have 
restraint. If you do not arrange some place for your 
turkeys while laying and setting do not count on having 
many turkeys to sell. You can fence off a lot fifty feet 
square with laths, build a small cheap house for laying 
in, and six dollars here will build the lot and house 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 3/ 

sufficient. Tie a shingle across the back and wings of 
your turkey hens to keep them from flying out. Place 
yolir best gobbler with your best plump hens in the lot 
and you are ready for business. You must now feed and 
water them regularly. Their feed must now consist of 
the same food as for laying hens, being sure they get 
plenty of shells and bones. Make a nest and put one 
egg in it and always leave a nest egg of some kind. Feed 
green food of some kind while confined. If they are too 
fat to lay, feed oats. By feeding a small allowance of 
wheat, daily, your turkey hens will lay their third laying 
and should then be allowed to set. You can set the first 
laid eo-Q-s under common hens. You must not let the 
eggs get chilled in the least and while setting they must 
be kept well sprinkled. On the thirty-first day the 
turkey hatches. If your turkey hen wants to leave the 
nest before all are hatched you will have to remove the 
young turkeys and keep them wrapped in warm flannel 
until all are hatched. 

Now there are three things that we must constantly 
keep in mind that we m.ust do if successful. They must 
be kept free from lice right from the start, and until they 
are nearly two months of age; if you do not have some- 
thing *'dead sure" right here will be your first stumbling 
block and it will trip you every time. If you have my 
Gape preventative apply one drop and it will rid them 
of lice. You have now overcome the first trouble. 

Secondly: They must be fed of food that is adapted 
to their constitution and it must be fed in a manner so 
that indigestion will not set in. This is the second 
trouble where many fail. Do not feed them anything 
until twenty-four hours old, and up to this time they 
must be well hovered. The home of the wild turkey be- 
ing in warm regions where they can obtain spices to 
keep up heat in the body is reason enough that they 
should be supplied with something of the kind. The 
first thing to feed is a grain of black pepper to each. For 



38 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RALSING. 

the first three days feed boiled rice and meal mixed 
in equal parts. Boiled perfectly dry and just simply 
dampened with sweet milk and sprinkled with pepper. 
After the third day feed cracked wheat and millet seed. 
Feed them of this kind of feed until they can swallow 
whole wheat readily. Give them an occasional feed of 
soft feed containing middlings and meal, but do not have 
it sloppy as such feed kills young turkeys. In feeding 
soft feed after the third day be sure to always put pul- 
verized charcoal and pepper in it. The water you give 
young turkeys, until at least six weeks old, must contain 
two teaspoonfuls of tincture of iron to every gallon. See 
that they get no other water. You must feed and water 
them as directed until the head and neck assumes the 
color of the adult. You can during this time give them 
plenty of milk to drink, and if confined should have a 
small allowance of meat with their diet; it should be 
fresh. They should also have gravel, sand, and, if shells, 
all the better. When they acquire what is termed the 
*'red head" you may consider them out of danger and 
may then be turned out to free range. 

The third point to consider in raising young turkeys 
is to keep them dry and warm. All the time you are 
feeding them as directed this important part must not 
be neglected. Your coops in which they roost at night 
must have a board floor, and on top of this put an inch 
of dry dirt and do not neglect to clean out clean once a 
week, and replace with dirt. If you have an open shed 
keep your turkeys in it for the first week so as to keep 
them warm and dry. You must arrange some way for 
this purpose; if you do not you will bear the loss. 



HOW TO FATTEN TURKEYS. 

The most economical way to raise turkeys is to 
feed them all they will eat from the shell to the 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 39 

slaughter. When young, turkeys need feed very often, 
every two hours during the day; but when on the range 
they should be fed only twice a day, in the morning and 
at night. It is a great loss to farmers to send their 
turkeys to market when only half fatted. Turkeys when 
properly fatted will bring tw^o or three cents more per 
pound than the poor, lank, lean turkey. To fatten them 
properly you must commence in time. Before they go 
to the range in the morning, if you have plenty of milk 
make you a trough and pour the milk into it where all 
can get at it. If you do not have milk give them a feed 
of meal and mashed potatoes, but do not feed them so 
much in the morning that they will not want to go to 
the range. At night feed them all the corn they will 
eat. Continue feeding in this manner until frost, then 
you must give an extra meal at noon; wheat is very good 
for this meal. Feed in this manner and when you get 
ready to sell they will bring you something. 



THE DUCK. 

Raising ducks is one of the most profitable branches 
of the poultry business as they can be kept at a very 
small expense, if they are furnished with a good sized 
range and a small pond. Some breeders claim that 
ducks should not be allowed large bodies of water to 
swim in. If you have not a small pond or pool for your 
ducks they will do very well and be apparently satisfied 
by sinking some small vessel in the yard and filling it 
with water. Yet, if they have a larger body of water, as 
a pond or creek, they will obtain a large part of their 
living from it, as they eat bugs and several species of 
insects which live in the water. Then if allowed, in 
connection with that, a large grass range they will catch 
slugs and bugs in quantities sufficient to furnish at least 
three-fourths of their living. If you have a potato patch 



40 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

fen.ced off to Itself turn them into it daily and they will 
rid your vines of bugs. 

I will now give you my method so minutely of rais- 
ing young ducks that if you follow it to the letter you 
can not help but succeed. To start with choose the 
variety that suits you best. The three leading varieties, 
I think, are the Pekin, Rouen and Aylesbury, all being 
fine large ducks; yet each one has its special merits, 
neither one excelling the other in all the useful qualities. 
About the first of January, in warm climates, and about 
the first of February, in cold climates, your ducks if well 
fed and sheltered in bad weather will commence laying. 
Their morning feed should be middlings and meal mixed 
together, being fed soft. Their noon meal should consist 
of about the same as the morning meal, adding cooked 
turnips and potatoes if you have them. At night you 
must feed whole corn. If you follow this system of feed- 
ing, giving plenty of sweet milk to drink and broken 
shells to eat, you may expect to get plenty of eggs. 

Where will they lay them.'' Shall it be just where 
they may happen to be at laying time or will it be in 
some suitable place provided for them,^ To have them 
lay well you must pen them every night and make their 
quarters dark. Do not have large holes in their roosting 
sheds so that it will be as light as if they had no shed. 
Build close to the ground but do not crowd too many in 
one place; have room enough for all to move around 
freely if they choose. Make them nests in the back side 
of the shed and see that they have plenty of water to 
drink at night. A duck needs water often; hence, I can 
not insist too strongly in having plenty of water at all 
times where they can get it. 

If you have suitable accommodations, I would 
recommend hatching young ducks early in the season. 
Of course, if successful in this, you must have warm 
quarters. Early hatched ducks sell for more money in 
the fall and early winter than later hatched ones. They 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 4I 

will be larger and make a quicker and better growth of 
feathers. They will also commence laying earlier. 
Some breeders say not to hatch ducks very early in the 
season. Yet I find the early ones, if rightly handled, the 
most profitable. To raise them early you must set the 
first laid eggs under hens. If a very small hen six duck 
eggs will be enough. For a Brahma hen nine is plenty. 
There is a great deal of compaint about duck eggs not 
hatching when set under a hen, yet the reason is plain 
enough. We must learn from the duck the best method 
of hatching her eggs. When left to herself she will take 
her daily excursion for food and water, and before re- 
turning will take a swim completely wetting her feathers. 
She will then return to her nest with her feathers drip- 
ping with water, which gives the eggs a thorough 
moistening. Then if we would be successful let us 
imitate her in this respect by sprinkling the eggs with 
water. If you neglect this important part in hatching 
the eggs, you will have but few ducks. To sprinkle the 
eggs is to have nice thrifty ducks. After they have been 
set on from twenty-eight to thirty days you will find a 
nest of nice young ducks. Pekin duck eggs, if well set 
on, will hatch in twenty-eight days. For some others 
it takes longer. 

We must now know something concerning the feed 
and management of these young ducks, if we wish to 
raise them. You should first feed eggs, meal and milk 
beat and mixed together. Cook it in your stove pans 
until it forms a curd; then if it is too stiff add a little 
sweet milk. Feed this for the first three days, but do 
not feed it if it sours. Give them plenty of sweet milk 
and water to drink. Afterwards feed sweet corn bread 
and mashed potatoes mixed with milk. In fact, feed all 
kinds of feed, you may have anything for a variety. 
There is hardly anything that comes amiss in the duck's 
bill of fare. After a few days feed them wheat and 
w^hen they get so that they can swallow it feed whole 



42 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

corn. Keep feeding them soft feed all the while. Mix 
a little charcoal, well pulverized, in their feed twice a 
week. While young do not let them have water to swim 
in. Do not think that a duck while young can stand to 
take all dews and rains that may come. If you do, you 
will find your mistake when you try it. Keep them up in 
the morning until the dew is nearly all gone, but be sure 
to feed and water them while in the coop of a 



THE GOOSE. 

Geese can be raised with profit if they have access 
to large bodies of water. If you have not, and wish to 
raise them, make a small pool of water, having it large 
and deep enough for them to swim in. This can be very 
easily done by digging and scraping out a hole in the 
ground as large as you wish and about three feet deep. 
Make it where there is a natural slope of the surface, 
then, commencing back as far as you see fit, sink a tile 
ditch letting the mouth extend into your pit; this will 
probably hold water the year round. 

As to the kind of geese to keep I shall not dictate. 
There being several kinds you can probably be suited. 
The feathers from geese are more profitable than to 
simply raise them to sell the carcass. 

In some portions of the country geese farms are 
kept, which pay a large profit. They are hardy and live 
to be old. Hence, a mighty point over most other fowls. 
But if geese are kept in pastures where stock is kept, I 
doubt the propriety of raising them, as they damage 
pastures so much. They do not bite the grass off but 
pull it up, frequently bringing a portion of the root. 
Their droppings are very offensive to the scent of stock. 
Therefore, I would advise you to keep them by them- 
selves. If you wish to raise a great many geese you had 
better set some of the first laid eggs under hens. Goose 



KEV TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 43 

eggs have a very thick shell, and to be successful you 
must sprinkle them thoroughly the last ten days before 
hatching. The day before the brood is to come off dip 
the eggs in warm water, not too warm, then put them 
back in the nest and you will have but very few die in 
the shell. 

After your goslings are hatched you must pay strict 
attention to them while young. Do not feed them until 
twenty-four hours old. Be sure to keep them dry and 
warm for at least three weeks. Their general feed 
should consist of middlings and meal mixed with milk. 
To keep their feathers in nice shape give them a small 
portion of salt in their food. Goslings hatched early in 
the season can be picked once and their feathers grow 
out in time for fattening for the Holiday market. The 
first picking from a gosling will pay for the expense of 
raising it. 

Geese can be wintered at a small expense as they 
will eat most anything. Throw them some hay in 
winter and let them eat the blades and seeds off If 
you have nice clean fodder it will supply a large amount 
of their food during winter. A goose seems to prefer 
something of this kind. You can feed them boiled 
turnips and beets. For fattening: feed oats and shelled 
corn thrown in a vessel containing water. Geese 
generally pair, though an extra goose will be accepted 
by the gander if she has no mate. Probably the best 
goose for market is a cross betwen the Toulouse and the 
Bremen, making a larger and plumper fowl than either. 
If you wish a good cross, try it. 



THE GUINEA. 



There is no use to doubt profit on raising guineas. 
When they are confined they seldom set. When given 
liberty they will hatch broods and rear them where other 



44 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

poultry with the same chance would fail. The young 
ones feather very rapidly and after five or six weeks old 
need but little brooding. 

Feed young guineas the same food you do young 
chicks, but they must have it oftener. Feed them meat 
of some kind every other day. The young need feed 
oftener than any other fowl as their feathers grow so 
quickly. A few feeds being missed and they will very 
often die. Guineas are naturally very wild and hide 
their nests, but as they are so noisy you can generally 
find them if you use caution. Several guineas will often 
lay in the same nest. Their eggs are small but they lay 
a great many of them. The old guinea is a very valuable 
fowl to have around the hen house at night. The least 
disturbance and they will give the alarm. They are also 
valuable in keeping hawks away from the poultry yard. 
The guinea pairs, yet two or more females may be 
allowed with one male. 



VALUE OF BONES. 

The majority of poultry breeders do not seem to 
appreciate the value of bones. But a small proportion of 
them ever use them. Nearly every family has bones 
enough of some kind to give their poultry occasionally. 
Do not throw the bones away. Roast them in your stove 
pans; get a hammer and a stone and mash them up. 
Feed a smal portion in their feed twice a week. It will 
pay you to do it. 



FEED YOUR FOWLS. 

I know there is a great many farmers who do not 
want their fowls to pick up even a grain of corn, but 
want their stock to eat it all. If you keep fowls about 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 45 

you by all means feed them. If you can not feed, them 
and intend to kill the first chicken you see putting its 
head in the crib for a grain of corn, you had better sell 
them all and not keep a fowl on the place. Try doing 
without one year and you will be apt to stock up at the 
end of the year and be willing to feed them, as you will 
then realize there is money in keeping fowls. Do not 
grumble if you see your wife feeding her fowls wheat 
and corn. 

If you wish to try an experiment furnish your 
wife with fifty dollars worth of fowls and a place to keep 
them. Then supply yourself with fifty dollars worth of 
hogs. Buy feed for both of them and keep a strict ac- 
count of all your expenses and your income; being sure 
to keep each account separate. Square your books at 
the end of the year and see who has the most clear 
money. As a rule she will double you. 

Do not think it is no business to take a load of 
turkeys or chickens to market. The poultry business is 
fast stepping to the front as the leading industry of the 
country; the products of which in 1886 amounted to 
over eight hundred million dollars in the United States. 
Who will say it is a small business with such statistics 
on record before him. 



EGGS IN SUMMER, 

If you are going in for eggs in summer, I would 
recommend to you the every day layers or non-setters, 
such as Houdans, Leghorns, Polish, Hamburghs and 
Spanish. 

There is one point a breeder should notice by 
which he can improve the laying qualities of his hens. 
You should always set eggs from your very best every- 
day-layers. If you will follow this system for two or 
three years you will find the amount of eggs increased. 



46 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

EGGS IN WINTER. 

It should be the object of every poultry raiser to 
have his hens lay during winter. Most any hen can lay 
some eggs in summer when eggs are cheap. The winter 
eggs are the ones to work for as you will generally get 
more than double in winter for your eggs than you do in 
summer. If you can not get your hens to lay in winter 
you are loosing the profits that the wise poultryman is 
reaping. 

In the first place it is very important that you have 
a good warm hen house. If you do not have this do not 
figure on many eggs in the winter. 

In the second place you must feed a variety of food 
and feed it while warm, and it must consist of vegetable, 
animal end mineral food prepared as directed. 

Third, to get plenty of eggs, you must select a 
variety that lays well in winter. Any of the Asiatics or 
large breeds are good winter layers. It makes but little 
difference which kind of the large breeds you select as 
there is more in their feed and management than there 
is in the breed. 

The small fowls are splendid winter layers but re- 
quire so much warmer quarters if they lay that they are 
not so advisable for the common farmer in winter as the 
large breeds. The Brahmas, Cochins, Plymouth Rocks, 
Langschangs and Wyandottes are good winter layers. 



CLEANLINESS DURING BREEDING. 

It should be the aim of every breeder during breed- 
ing time to give his fowls the best of care. One of the 
first essentials is to keep the fowls clean and nice. If 
this is done properly you will keep your fowls healthier 
than they would be if allowed in all the filth of the 
poultry yard where it has not been cleaned for six months, 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 4/ 

allowing them to drink out of every little hole of water 
during the wet months. You should keep everything 
drained about your yards so that the water will not 
stand in puddles for four or five days after every rain. 

I find nothing more convenient about my yards dur- 
ing breeding time than a coop which is capable of being 
moved. It should be made ten feet long, five feet wide 
at the bottom, coming together at the top A-shaped; use 
light material for the frame and laths for the sides and 
ends. Make a small door in one end, placing one of 
your roosting coops at the end of this. Put a dust-box 
and a nest-box inside. Give them plenty of feed and 
water and by moving them daily you can have your 
fowls on nice clean ground. They lay well, handled in 
this rnanner. For a shade you can tack a thick piece of 
muslin coated with tar on one end of your coop. You 
will find this kind of a coop very convenient in the 
poultry yard. 

WILL IT PAY TO KEEP THEM BY THE 
THOUSANDS. 

This is a question I am often asked by poultry 
raisers and in answer to all let me say, that depends 
upon your ability and experience. If I had the care of 
three or four thousand I should want to know where my 
help was to come from and if I could rely on them every 
day in the year. I should also want about eighty acres 
of land to be devoted to their keeping. It will not do 
for the inexperienced to commence in the thousands; 
you had better not commence in the hundreds. Com- 
mence with a few and as your experience and practice 
will warrant you, climb to hundreds and then thousands. 

There are a great many mistakes published by 
writers on raising poultry. Persons writing who follow 
some occupation other than raising poultry. They lead 
hundreds of others in their own errors. All such per- 



48 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

sons are to blame very much. If you know nothing of 
poultry raising and wish to learn it, right in the poultry 
yard is the place to take the first lessons. You must 
learn from books and periodicals all you can about the 
business, but first find out if possible whether the 
"author" is a poultry raiser and one who has sufficient 
experience to warrant what he says. Then practice it 
daily in your yards and you will come out all right if 
you will always use strict business principles in your 
dealings. If you are breeding fancy poultry to sell 
always give each customer the worth of his money. Be 
fair and you will come to the front soon enough. There 
is room for such persons in the poultry business. 



DEMAND FOR THOROUGHBRED FOWLS. 

We live in an age of progression. The old dung-hill 
fowls served their generation well, but profit from poultry 
now is greatest when good stock is kept. The call for 
something better is everywhere apparent. People are 
becoming tired of breeding poultry unless they have the 
best, from the fact that it pays to keep the best. Fowls 
that are thoroughbred will lay more eggs and their flesh 
be sweeter and better. The cost of production is less 
than where the barn-yard fowl is kept. There are a 
great many different breeds of chickens and there is a 
demand for all of them. Some want one kind and some 
another. It makes but little difference what breed you 
get if you wish to raise thoroughbred fowls to sell. But 
by all means get the best to start with. 

Get your fowls from some reliable breeder Avho has 
reputation at stake and you can depend on what you get. 
Your cost from him may be a little more than it will be 
from the bogus breeder who cares not for reputation. 
The difference in co-st will be no comparison between the 
fowls you get. My first mistake in thoroughbred fowls 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 49 

was right here. I took my first lesson in cheap fowls 
which cost me $1.50 apiece. I thought I must have 
something cheap. I bought five to start with. When 
they arrived my birds did not fill the "standard". They 
had the roup in its last stages. In forty-eight hours my 
entire flock was contaminated with this dreaded disease. 
Never was there a stream that flowed so smoothly that 
did not have some rocky shoal. I was now the "thorough- 
bred poultryman" dearly receiving my first lesson *'on 
the sand bar," knowing not which way to steer. It 
taught me a lesson I will never forget, and it was all be- 
cause I wanted something "cheap." My time, labor and 
money was lost. I now commenced anew, but did not 
want something cheap. 

Here is the road that separates the National from 
the bogus breeder: The one will have nothing but the 
best. The other cares not for quality but makes quantity 
his highest aim. The one can build fine houses and 
barns; the other complains of hard times generally. 
Therefore, do not make the mistake pointed out to start 
on. After you get a trio of fancy birds to start with the 
rest will come easy enough. Clerks, bankers, ministers, 
mechanics, as well as farmers, may find this a change of 
employment and recreation from the day's dull routine. 



RAISING POULTRY IN CITIES. 

Because you live in the city you are not excluded 
from raising poultry. While it is true that the greatest 
advantages for raising poultry are on the farm, it is just 
as true that poultry can be raised with profit in cities. 
Every family, who has a lot fifty by one hundred feet, 
can raise poultry to a good advantage. Fence your lot 
in with a fence high enough to hold them. Set the lot 
in plum trees for a shade. You can, in this space, keep 
two varieties and keep them pure by having a partition 



KEY TO SUCC^STOlpOULTRY RAISI^ 

fence. By selling your fowls before they are grown you 
will be surprised at the amount of fowls you can raise 
and sell in one year on a lot fifty by one hundred. By 
selling your chickens when about half grown you will 
get prices for them far in advance of the standard price 
for old fowls. They will then bring you nearly as much 
as if they were grown and sometimes more. Of course 
your fowls would do better if they had more range, but 
by paying strict attention to cleanliness and using tonics 
in their feed and water, you will make it a success. 



FATTENING FOWLS. 

It is very essential that a fowl should be brought to 
the table only when well fatted, as the lean fowl is 
scorned by all who have a taste for, and delight in, hav- 
ing **the fat of the land" to live on. A chicken may be 
fatted in ten days. In fattening you should feed meat 
or grease of some kind, and give plenty of water to drink. 
For grain food feed mostly corn. Have your fowls con- 
fined in a coop having just light enough to see how to 
eat and drink. In ten days you will generally have them 
nicely fatted. To fatten geese: confine them and feed 
them corn and oats thrown in a vessel containing water. 
The turkey must not be confined while fattening. You 
should confine the duck while fattening. 



CROSSING FOWLS. 

To insure a successful cross you must have some 
knowledge at least of the laws of procreation. You must 
have some knowledge of the effects of parents upon their 
offspring. You must also have some knowledge of the 
different breeds if you wish to produce a cross between 
them. A cross between two breeds becomes a specie, 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 5 1 

and this specie becomes a variety only when there is 
sufficient stamina to reproduce its kind and like produce 
like. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as our 
fowls being pure bred. We have them that have been 
bred "straight" for several years and we all agree in 
calling them pure bred, because they now produce chicks 
like parents. From the old Cochin-China or Shanghi 
there are several varieties, all being akin, but go by dif- 
ferent names, such as, the Light and Dark Brahma, 
White, Black, Patridge and Buff Cochin, all having 
sprung from a common parentage since 1847. Intro- 
ducing foreign blood into a variety, for some specific 
purpose, is beneficial, if it then be bred out until you get 
the family all looking alike. Again, it is very desirable 
that the parentage should be healthy and from ancestors 
that were healthy. They should also be similar in make 
up, should be of good size, domestic in habits, fine fleshed, 
splendid layers, good setters and careful nursers, and 
should have nice plumage. 

In judging of the purity of the blood there are 
several leading points to be noticed. If the leg is good 
size for the breed they generally are pure blood; but if 
the leg is smaller than most others of the same breed it 
is degenerating in important respects. It is necessary 
to select the best fowls for either crossing or breeding 
pure or else they will degenerate rapidly. The color of 
the legs is also one way of judging of the quality of the 
breed. If the legs are dark for the breed, the fowl will 
be of good blood. The flesh will be better and sweeter. 
The quality of the flesh should go along way with the 
breeder, and he should breed from those that have the 
juiciest, finest and richest flavor of their flesh. The 
plumage is also a very good index to the quality of the 
flesh. If the plumage is rich and glossy, lying close to 
the body, you may assure the blood is good. But if the 
feathers are very loosely arranged and have a rough 
appearance while young, you may know it is of 



52 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

deteriorated blood. If the fowl is rather light in pro- 
portion to its size, the flesh will be more or less coarse. 
But if heavy in proportion to its size, the flesh will be 
fine. If the flesh is fine the bones are fine, and the plum- 
age is also fine. If you, in selecting, choose a fowl of a 
rich and glossy plumage, its legs will be a deep color for 
the breed. 



SELECTING BREEDING STOCK. 

As there are so many breeds it would be very- 
difficult to give the points to be noticed in selecting each. 
But summorizing: I will say, select those of the breed 
that come up to the standard in points. If you can, make 
vigor and activity the foremost qualities. It is not 
always the largest fowls that are most vigorous and 
active. But it is the one with full, bright eyes, compact 
body and quick muscular movement. The selction of a 
hen is of as much consequence as that of the cock. For 
the breed select a medium sized hen, a brilliant eye, 
wide tail, large (not necessary long) legs, an industrious 
forager and the very best layer. 



SELECTION OF A COCK. 

Select the largest, if he has full hackle and tail. His 
comb, wattles and throat should be large. The comb 
should be a deep scarlet red. The color of his eye 
corresponding in general to that of his plumage. 
His bill should be crooked and sharp; neck should 
be long and hackle extending well down to the 
shoulders; nice erect tail and should be very 
active. 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 53 

INCUBATORS. 

Do you use incubators.^ I have been asked time after 
time. I do not, and to say anything in regard to them I 
can only give you my idea. I believe there are incuba- 
tors that can be made a success with those who under- 
stand using them. I can hear of persons who are using 
them with success, but I have never seen a person that 
did. I have seen them in operation, but I never have seen 
a person who was satisfied with them yet. I knew a per- 
son last spring to put two hundred and twenty eggs in 
one and only hatched seven chicks. That, however, is 
the worst failure with one I know of. There are several 
different incubators on the market, all embracing some- 
what similar principles, yet I do not know of any where 
the proprietor is willing to warrant it. So far as economy 
in hatching eggs is concerned they are all a failure as yet. 
The cheapest incubator I know of is one costing eighteen 
dollars and a half. Its capacity is one hundred eggs. 
To hatch one hundred eggs will require the time of eight 
hens. The feed of these eight hens while hatching will 
not cost as much as the fuel v/ill for running the incuba- 
tor the same length of time. The value of these eight 
hens is not exceeding four dollars. This leaves you a 
margin of fourteen dollars and fifty cents, in favor of the 
hen. Now this is the business view of it, and if you want 
to try one you have an undoubted right to do so. Try 
them until you do make a success. If you get one by all 
means get the best there is on the market. But if you 
follow my system of feeding, laying and setting hens 
you will have no need of an incubator, unless you intend 
to supply chicks for market by the thousands. 



BREEDING. 

There are several different terms for breeding, be- 
ing designated from the manner in which the breeding is 



54 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

carried on. They are termed "in and in," "close," 
"mixed" and "high breeding." And it is from the knowl- 
edge of the laws of procreation that the success of the 
thoroughbred dealer is mainly due. When breeding is 
carried on between individuals of the same breed or be- 
tween brother and sister it is termed "in and in." When 
breeding is carried on between the parent and his 
offspring it is termed "close breeding." The connection 
between different breeds or varieties is termed "mixed 
breeding." When the parent stock is selected of the 
same race and of remote consanguinity, perfect in all the 
general characteristics, it is termed "high breeding"; and 
to secure the best results this must be resorted to 
yearly. If a breed is pure the offspring will resemble the 
parents in almost every respect. In plumage and general 
outline, they will look the same. "Close breeding" is 
what ruins most breeders. If followed it will result in 
deterioration of the breed in the most important re- 
spects. When the blood is mixed the plumage will vary 
according to circumstances. The law of nature seems to 
be "close" and "in and in" breeding as with the pheasant. 
In their wild state they resort to "close" and "in and in" 
breeding, yet the race does not seem to degenerate; 
neither change in appearance. You may examine and 
compare these birds and you can not find any dissimilarity 
between them. They seem to be pure of their breed. 
The reason why our breeds of fowls degenerate by 
breeding "close" and "in and in" is because they are not 
pure of their kind but have mixed blood in them. 



EGGS FOR HATCHING- 

It is with some a great mystery why they get a good 
hatch from some eggs and from others they get scarcely 
any chicks at all. There are several reasons for this. 
You should not save the eggs from a pullet if you wish 



KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RALSING. 55 

them all to hatch. Your cock should also be of sufficient 
age to be fully matured; if he is not there will be several 
unfertile eggs. 

Eggs to hatch well should be collected as soon as 
laid, especially if the weather is cold and windy. They 
should be kept resting on some soft material, no one 
resting on another. If you have a cellar keep them there. 
It is the best place to keep them at all seasons of the 
3/ear. Sometimes your hens get too fat; if so their eggs 
will not hatch well. Feeding oats is good for them at 
this time. Your hens also need exercise if you wish 
their eggs to hatch well. From hens, kept in close con- 
finement, eggs will not keep real well. You should, in 
selecting eggs, select the medium sized egg that the hen 
lays, such as you have reason to believe have been 
rendered fertile. And as to the sex of the egg no one 
can tell until it is hatched. In this all signs fail. So ''do 
not count your pullets until they hatch." Put your eggs 
in milk warm water and set those only that readily sink 
to the bottom. If you wish to improve your stock so as 
to have them lay larger eggs always select the largest 
eggs for setting and in a few years you will be surprised 
at the difference it will make. Yet the large egg will not 
hatch so well as the medium sized egg the hen lays. 



CHANGES OF FOOD. 

The changes which food undergo in fowls is partly 
mechanical and partly chemical. Fowls swallow the 
grain without mastication and it is digested in the, 
stomach. The digestive functions in fowls differ materi- 
ally from some animals which subsist on nearly the same 
kind of food. The digestive organs of fowls are six in 
number, namely: Gullet, crop, stomach, gizzard, liver 
and intestines. The gullet extends from the mouth 
running along the neck and terminating in a membrancus 



56 KEY TO SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING. 

bag, in front of the chest, called the crop or craw. It 
is somewhat similar to the rumen or "paunch" in the 
ox. It receives the gullet from the upper part; it then 
extends downward to about the middle of the crop. Its 
function is to receive the food Avhen first swallowed. It 
secretes an acid which is held in solution by numerous 
glands covering the surface. The food is here macerated 
and dissolved by this acid. The food passes thence into 
the second stomach which is also furnished b}' a large 
number of glands which are hollow. Their office is to 
secrete a digestive fluid and to discharge it into a cavity 
through a small opening. When this has thoroughly 
performed its office it then passes into the gizzard. The 
gizzard is the last stomach, being composed of muscular 
fibres running in different directions and lined Vv'ith a 
horny membrane. It is capable of powerful grinding or 
trituration. It is adapted to answer the purpose of 
grinding teeth in other animals. This trituration may 
be distinctly heard by standing beside the fowl on the 
roost at night. The outlet of the gizzard discharges, the 
digested food into the chyle-gut, being the first of the 
intestines. The function of the liver is to prepare bile 
from the blood, conducted to it by the veins, and by a 
duct, carrying the bile from the gall-bladder into the 
chyle-gut, to be mixed with digested food. A fluid be- 
ing now brought from the pancreas to the chyle-gut 
completes digestion. From this the food passes into the 
small intestines whose surface is lined with absorbents 
which open to take up nourishment prepared by the 
stomach. The refuse passes from thence to the rectum 
and is discharged from the body. Fowls also have kid- 
neys which are situated in a hollow beside the backbone. 
Its office is to remove superfluous fluid from the blood. 
Fowls have no bladder and if their droppings are moist 
it is an indication of health. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

Poultry constitutes no exception to the list of things 
that are subjected to disease. Nature, which has given 
every creeping thing an organism of parts, has so arranged 
those parts that they become diseased whenever they 
are for a certain length of time acted upon externally or 
internally by some agent which is moving their functions 
contrary to the law of nature. The organism of fowls is 
not exempt from this law. Disease will prey upon them 
at times as with other living things. The barn yard 
fowl is so constituted that it can not resist but a certain 
amount of the germs of disease. The diseases which 
prey upon them are numerous. Many of them malignant 
and a few of them fatal. Yet if a proper regard is had 
of their sanitary condition, by the use of tonics and 
appropriate remedies, these diseases can be overcome. 

I shall not say to you, I know it all concerning the 
diseases to which poultry are subjected, and their 
remedies. If I should I would say more than any per- 
son living can truthfully say. There may be other 
remedies for the diseases of fowls than those that are 
contained in this book. But in the following pages I 
will give you facts as I have learned them concerning 
the symptoms, causes and remedies of diseases. I shall 
give you the manner of treating diseases so plain that 
you can by a little practice keep your fowls as healthy 
as I keep mine. In fact, you need not loose them if you 
will administer the remedy in time. After using my 
system you will agree with me that the object in view 
can be successfully accomplished. Without some sure 
system I would have to bid '.'farewell" to the poultry 



58 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

yard and seek employment in some other business. 
When a fowl is attacked it should be immediately 
removed to itself to prevent the contamination of the 
remainder of the flock. Nature, who is a preserver of 
fowls while in health, will also nurse them in weakness, 
and the aim of all my medical treatment is to co-operate 
with her in restoring and preserving the health of fowls. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

You all know that some diseases are capable of be- 
ing caught and that others are not. I shall now speak 
of the first class: 

In the case of measles with persons you understand 
that it has germs of its own. If you are exposed to the 
mumps, you will not take the measles and if exposed to 
the measles you will not take the mumps. The germs 
of these diseases are vegetable having no spontaneous 
growth of its own. They inhabit the atmosphere and 
from it a person inhales them. They are about as small 
as you could imagine. They are absorbed by the blood, 
transforming into the type of disease. The symptoms 
of poultry Cholera are in a great majority of cases a yel- 
low coloration of that part of the excrement which is 
excreted by the kidneys and which is in health a pure 
white. This yellow coloring matter appears while the 
excrement is yet solid, the foul still having its spright 
gait and the appetite yet good. In a few cases the first 
symptom is a diarrhea, the excrement being passed fre- 
quently and in large quantities. In all cases the diarrhea 
soon becomes a prominent symptom. The excrement 
in the latter stages change to a greenish or even a deep 
green color. When the diarrhea sets in the fowls begin 
to loose an interest in things about them. The comb 
looses its red color and becomes pale and bloodless; the 
temperature rises, reaching from 109° to 110° Fahr.; the 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 59 

wings droop and the fowl sleeps. The duration of the 
disease varies. Sometimes the bird dies within twenty- 
hours of the first symptoms. In others life is prolonged 
two weeks, and some few worry along and get well. 

In chicken cholera it is these microscopic germs 
transforming and multiplying until blood, flesh and en- 
tire system is full of them. While in health poultry can 
resist these germs a long time. Sometimes they can 
resist them until they get well. Some fowls have natur- 
ally stronger constitutions than others. Those that have 
had it once and get well may take it again and die in a 
very short time. 

For a great while I could not prevent this contagious 
disease and it caused me trouble and great loss. I ex- 
perimented a great deal on chicken cholera. I read all 
the poultry books I could get, but the thing I most 
needed and wanted to know was not to be found. So I 
began to reason from cause to effect. I studied the 
anatomy, habits and disposition of fowls; I studied the 
nature of the disease; I watched closely the effects 
through the different stages, from the beginning until it 
finally took the life blood away. After I was sure I knew 
the cause of chicken cholera I sought for a preventative 
of that cause. I called to my aid the science of Chemistry; 
I searched its pages from morn till night. I had long 
ago learned that Chemistry is not a mere mass of dead 
facts, but that it is a living science. So I began its prac- 
tical application in the art of raising poultry. I tried 
first one thing and then another, always noticing the 
effects. "A preventative I must have or failure would 
be my lot," was my conclusion. I finally tried ingre- 
dients that did just the thing I wanted them to do. And 
I know as long as there is poultry to have the cholera 
my mixture will prevent it if used as directed, and re- 
member it will cure it in its first stages. There is no 
use to dispute it. All doubts vanish when you try it. 
It has been in use too long to question its merits. Your 



60 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

hens will lay more eggs by its use than without it. It 
has prov^en a success from Minnessota to Texas. This 
wonderful preventative has proven a success as far west 
as the Pacific coast. In fact, it has proven a success in 
all climes and in all latitudes wherever tested. 



HOG CHOLERA. 

There is a relation between hog and chicken cholera. 
But you can not give a chicken the cholera from the 
blood of a hog with the cholera. Neither can you give 
a hog the cholera from the blood of a diseased chicken. 
Yet there is some similarity between them. Hog cholera 
is also caused by microscopic germs which multiply and 
transform themselves until the system is full of them. 
They occupy about the same time in transformation as 
do the germs of chicken cholera, producing death in 
about the same time. I have noticed for along time 
that if you had one of the diseases on your farm the 
other was sure to follow soon, unless precautions were 
taken against it. You must use tonics and something 
"dead sure" that will nip these germs of diseases in the 
bud. They are in the water, the atmosphere contains 
them. You may walk through a hog lot containing 
these germs and they will stick to your boots with the 
soil, and can be carried into a lot where they are not and 
from these a hog will take the cholera. It appears that 
the temperature of the weather does not affect them in 
the least, no difference how cold or how hot it gets. I 
use a tonic that will destroy these germs, wherever 
found, before they take their great hold in transforma- 
tion. 

What is a preventative of chicken cholera is also 
a preventative of hog cholera. What will kill these 
germs of disease in one will also kill the germs of disease 
in the other. Their sanitary condition must be looked 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 6l 

after the same, but their feed and care is different. This 
is my theory of hog and chicken cholera. I prevent it 
and cure it in its first stages based on this theory. 



APOPLEXY. 



Symptoms — The fowl is attacked suddenly, appar- 
ently when in good health. These symptoms are occas- 
ioned by the rupture of a vessel in the skull and the 
effusion of blood, which, by the pressure on the brain, 
produces the evil. 

Causes — Is most frequent in birds that have been 
overfed, it is most common among laying hens, they be- 
ing attacked while on the nest. Sometimes over stimu- 
lating food, as bean or pea meal, will cause the 
disease. 

Remedy — The only sure way is opening a vein with 
a sharp pointed knife or lancet. You should select the 
veins on the under side of the wing. It must be opened 
in a longitudinal direction, not cut across. By pressing 
the thumb or finger on the vein between the opening and 
the body, the blood will flow freely. You must now feed 
on light food. 

PARALYSIS. 

Symptoms — Inability to move some of the limbs. 
It is most frequent in the legs. 

Causes — It is usually an affection of the spinal cord 
and is caused by over-feeding. 

Remedy — Hold the fowl's head under a small run- 
ning stream of water. Give ten grains of Jalap. The 
bird should be kept on a rather low diet and kept warm 
for a few days. 



62 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

VERTIGO. 

Symptoms — Running around in a circle and flutter- 
ing about with loss of power over their muscles. 

Causes — The affection is caused, evidently, by an 
undue flow of the blood to the head, and is dependent 
on a full blooded state. 

Remedy — Holding the head under a stream of water 
will arrest the disease at once. Giving eight grains of 
Jalap will remove the tendency to the disease. 

DIARRHEA. 

Sym,ptoms — Are: Voiding of calcareus matter, 
streaked with yellow; frequent discharge of the excre- 
ment. 

Causes — Generally caused by having too much 
green food; sometimes from undue activity of the bowels. 

Remedy — When caused from green food give them 
a supply of grain food, as corn or wheat; if from undue 
activity mix charcoal and five grains of powdered chalk 
in their feed, giving freely of pepper in their soft feed. 

CATARRH. 

Symptoms — A watery discharge from the nostrils, 
with a slight swelling of the eyelids. In bad cases the 
face is swollen and it at once passes into roup. 

Causes — Exposure and dampness, such as continu- 
ous wet weather, or it may be caused by roosting where 
a current of air is passing. 

Remedy — Remove to a warm and dry place; feed a 
variety of stimulating and nutritious food, seasoning free- 
ly with cayenne pepper. If it passes into the last stages, 
treat as for roup. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 63 



BRONCHITIS. 



Symptoms — There is a rattling in the throat, being 
an accumulation of mucus, which the fowl coughs up and 
expectorates at intervals. 

Causes — Caused from roosting in damp places and 
exposure to cold. 

Remedy— ^^movdX to a drier place will generally 
effect a cure. If that does not cure, give one grain of 
calomel and one-fourth grain of tartar emetic. 

CROP BOUND. 

Symptoms — Continued hardness of the crop with a 
disinclination to eat. 

Causes — It is generally caused by the fowl having 
swallowed something it cannot digest, as apiece of glass, 
bone or shell. 

Remedy — Sometimes you can relieve them by feed- 
ing a tablespoonful of fresh lard and then rubbing the 
crop so as to commingle the lard with the contents of 
the crop. If this does not effect a cure, take a sharp 
penknife and make an incision through the skin and then 
into the upper part of the crop; clean the crop of every- 
thing in it. Then stitch the incision and feed for a few 
days on bread soaked in sweet milk. 

ROUP. 

Roup is one of the worst diseases the poultryman 
has to contend with, as it will contaminate a flock in so 
short a time. Roup is common among fowls of all ages. 
It is either acute or chronic. It sometimes commences 
gradually; at other times, suddenly. It is better by far to 
prevent this disease than to cure it as it spreads -so rapidly. 

5j/7;///<?;//.s^— Difficult breathing, gaping frequently, 
rattling in the throat; the head is swollen and somewhat 



64 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

feverish; the eyelids turn dry; the sight is obstructed 
and they sometimes go blind and starve to death. There 
are frequent discharges from the mouth. 

Causes — It is generally caused by deep seated colds 
and moisture; sometimes by want of cleanliness. If 
your fowls roost in dark, unhealthy places it predisposes 
the disease. 

Remedy — I have never found anything chat I have 
ever tried that will do any good excepting my Roup 
Mixture. It is a reliable preventative and will cure in 
all but the very last stages. 

CONSUMPTION. 

Symptoms — In the first stages of the disease the 
symptoms are hardly observable; later, there is a wast- 
ing away of flesh with a sneezing or coughing. 

Causes — It is often caused by neglected cold; confin- 
ed in dark, unhealthy places with scrofulous tubercles 
arising on the liver and lungs. It is most generally 
caused by breeding *'in and in" too long. 

Remedy — In the first stages a teaspoonful of cod- 
liver oil mixed with meal, is beneficial. In the latter 
stages the ''chopping black" is the only remedy. 

PIP. 

Symptoms — The appearance of a dry horny scale 
upon the tongue is the characteristic of this disease. 
The fowl has a short spasmodic cough. The first thing 
should be to remove the hard part on the tongue. 

Causes — Exposure to cold and the use of filthy 
water. 

Remedy — Take a small quantity of lard and mix into 
it some Scotch snuff. Give two or three doses every 
day for two days. Keep warm and dry and it will soon 
recover. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 65 

RHEUMATISM. 

Symptoms — Inability to move the limbs; manifest 
pain on attempting to move. 

Causes — Exposure to cold and wet. 

Remedy — Nourishing food and a warm, dry habita- 
tion is the best thing that can be done. 

GOUT. 

Symptoms — Feet swelling, attended with some de- 
gree of heat. 

Causes — Result of cold and exposure. 

Remedy — Give one grain of calomel every night for 
four nights, keeping them warm. 

LEG WEAKNESS. 

Symptoms — This disease is usually among cockerels 
though not always. The bird is more or less unable to 
support itself and squats around on its hocks, after 
standing for a short time as if tired. In bad cases they 
are even unable to walk. 

Causes — It is usually caused by the rapid increase in 
weight of the body from the effects of over-feeding. It 
is more common in large breeds than in small ones. It 
often arises from *'in and in" breeding. 

Remedy — Dip the legs in cold water. Feed plenty 
of shells and mix lime in their feed. 

BUMBLE FOOT. 

Symptoms — It is distinguished by a small wart like 
body on the ball of the foot. Enlarging, it ulcerates and 
the bird becomes lame. 

Causes — The cause seems to be from flying down 
from the roost, where there is nothing provided for them 



66 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

to walk down; sometimes caused by pressure from sharp 
stones. 

SCALY LEG. 

Symptoms — The formation of a whitish scurf on the 
skin of the legs and toes. It becomes hard and warty 
in appearance, if neglected. 

Causes — It is caused by a parasite Vv'orking under 
the scales of the fowl's legs. It is evidently contageous 
and should have immediate attention. 

Remedy — Wash the legs in water and coal oil mixed 
in equal parts, after the lapse of three minutes wash in 
strong soap suds. 

BALDNESS AND WHITE COMB. 

Symptoms — A hard and scurfy appearance of the 
comb, head and neck; in advanced stages gradual loss 
of feathers from the head and neck. 

Causes — Unnatural food, the want of fresh vegeta- 
bles, impure water, ill ventilation and dark quarters. 

Remedy — Return to the natural diet, give clean 
quarters, good ventilation. Feed daily plenty of sul- 
phur and charcoal. 

CHICKEN POX. 

Symptoms — A covering of the head, face or body 
with ulcers containing infectious matter. 

Causes — Sudden changes of weather with a scant 
supply of food. 

Remedy — Wash the parts affected with strong soap. 
Feed tincture of iron, sulphur and charcoal. 

MOULTING. 

Symptoms — This is not a disease, yet it is the most 
critical stage in the year, especially, for old fowls. The 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 6/ 

symptoms of bad moulting are: standing around as if 
not well, with its feathers having a rough appearance; 
inactivity and falling av/ay in flesh. 

Causes — As the body of the fowl undergoes a change 
it must also have a change of its plumage to keep up 
the life giving process of nature. 

Remedy — Place the fowl in warm quarters where the 
sun shines freely. Feed nourishing feed and a small 
quantity of tincture of iron daily. 

ABORTION. 

Symptoms — Moping about as if not feeling well after 
dropping a soft or perfect ^^^ suddenly. 

Causes — Sudden fright by anything generally the 
cause. 

^^7;/£'^'— Supply plenty of nourishing food. Feed 
shells, ground bone and lime. 

' ASTHMA. 

Symptoms — Panting as if difficult to breathe; opening 
of the beak often. 

Causes — This is an obstruction of the air cells, being 
an accumulation of phlegm. The membrane of the wind- 
pipe becomes thickened. 

Remedy — My Roup mixture is the only thing I know 
of that will do it any good. 

SWELLING OF THE HEAD. 

Symptoms — -Their head swells and is feverish. They 
appear stupid. 

Causes — This is caused by filth, stagnant water and 
indigestion. 

Remedy — Give eight grains of Jalap, afterwards feed 
sulphur and tincture of iron in their feed. 



68 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



BLACK ROT. 



Symptoms — A black appearance of the comb; swell 
ing of the legs and feet, and loss of vigor. 

Causes — Want of exercise and feeding sameness of 
food. 

Remedy — Feed nourishing food and plenty of green 
food. 

PROTUSION OF THE EGG PASSAGE. 

Symptoms — The symptoms of this disease vary with 
the part of the oviduct affected. This occurs with lay- 
ing hens and we can locate the seat of complaint by the 
state of the ^^^ extruded. If the lower part is affected 
the ^%% is expelled before the shell has been secreted, 
and the result is a soft-skinned ^^^. If the middle part 
is affected the membrane is incomplete. If the whole 
tube is inflamed the yelk is dropped without any cover- 
ing whatever. 

Cmises — Over-feeding and the lack of the proper 
shell material; inflamation of the oviduct. 

Remedy — Give one grain of tartar emetic, and feed 
crushed oyster shells, ground bone and lime. 



INDIGESTION. 

Indigestion is of frequent occurrence among fowls 
and is generally caused by improper food. The remedy 
is to give a variety of food and that which is nutritious. 

COSTIVENESS. 

Costiveness frequently arises from feeding dry feed 
too long and deprivation of green food. It is certain to 
happen unless green food in some form is given. Fre- 



1 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 69 

quent attempts to relieve themselves is a good symptom 
of the disease. 

Remedy — Give a dose of castor oil and feed bread 
soaked in milk for a few days. Supply plenty of animal 
and vegetable food. 

LICE. 

It seems that the v/hole feathered tribe are infested 
with lice. They are very annoying to the poultry raiser. 
Fowls that are infested w^ith lice will not thrive. It 
retards their growth and prevents their fattening and 
laying. Your chicks when once stunted with lice seem 
to never get entirely over it. My Gape preventative is 
also a complete lice exterminator. It will kill the lice 
and not injure the fowl in the least, either young or old. 
It will rid your hen house of lice. 

GAPES. 

Syinptovis — Sneezing, standing, drooping, gaping, 
and gasping. 

Causes — Feeding sloppy feed, foul water, exposure 
to wet, eating a small species of bugs that stays on 
vegetables; transformation of mites from lice. 

Remedy — The only preventative and cure in the in- 
cipient stage I know of is my Gape Preventative. 

This disease is so prevalent I will tell you what I 
know about it. The gapes appear to be worse on some 
places than on others. Sometimes I find them on old 
settled places and sometimes on new ones. I think I 
would be safe in saying, that two-fifths of all the chicks 
hatched in the United States die of the gapes. This 
gaping is caused from the presence of numerous small 
red worms, about the size of cambric needle, adhering to 
the lining of the windpipe. The male and female are 
double and together somevv^hat in the shape of the 
letter Y. They multiply very fast, forming in this way 



70 DISEASES OE POULTRY. 

quite a roll of them. The blood vessels fail to give so 
many of them nourishment and the weaker ones letting 
go fall down in great numbers, choking the chick to 
death. The mites on the head of the chick, if the chick 
is lousy, will go through a transformation on entering 
the nostrils and produce these worms. There is also a 
species of bug that lives on certain vegetables which 
produce them. There is a specie of vegetable lice that 
stay around old chip piles which produce this v/orm 
also. It does not lose vitality by freezing nor during 
hot weather. In cool weather it appears to be the worst. 
After the chick gets of sufficient age, so that the muscles 
of the windpipe are toughened until it can not get hold, 
they can not hurt the chick.. You may take a hen and 
chicks and let them run w^here they wish and if you are 
using my Gape Preventative they will not have the 
gapes. Take a brood of chicks that has just taken the 
disease and you can cure them. This I have tried time 
and again. I have had others try it with the same 
success. A lady friend told me that she had cured them 
when down and could not get up with my Gape Pre- 
ventative. If your chicks run w^here others have had 
the gapes, they will pick up the gape-w^orm and be 
gaping too in a short time. Plowing land, turning it 
completely over, is very beneficial in destroying the 
gape-worms in the soil, especially if you cultivate beans 
or potatoes on said land. On some old settled places 
the ground has not been plowed for fifty years — in the 
yard and around the fence corners and barn lots where 
poultry uses. 

Must we follow in the footsteps of our grandfathers 
and grandmothers letting our chicks die of the gapes or 
will we take advantage of the progression of the age in 
which w^e live.'* The old remedy our grandmothers had 
was to seize the chick by the throat, get a horse hair 
and push into the windpipe and extract the worms if 
they could. Sometimes they would get part of them 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. /I 

out and sometimes they would not. Frequently they 
would kill both chick and worms by such barbarous 
treatment. Such as this is uncalled for now. If it was 
not, The Key to Successful Poultry Raising would 
never have had a passing thought. I would have been 
compelled to quit the poultry business, casting my eyes 
to my vacant coops and inquiring, 'Ts there not a cause.-* " 
For gapes there is a cause and I have the preventa- 
tive of that cause. If you begin in time the use of my 
preventative, (it is best to apply as soon as the chick is 
hatched,) and use promptly for a few days your trouble 
is over, and your success with this dreaded disease will 
be accomplished. 



%'.,-^i 



%C71"^ 



Honest And Fair Dealing With All 



Soi\ey dfeek Poultry Ykfd. 



Thoroughbred and Fancy Poultry. 

I have in my yards all the popular varieties of fowls. 
I guarantee ENTIRE Satisfaction in every instance, 
and if any fowl shipped by me does not suit the pur- 
chaser it can be returned — express paid — and the money 
will be immediately refunded. I do not ask above a fair 
price for first-class stock. Anyone in need of fowds can 
obtain the price by writing for what variety they want. 
I will also feel very thankful for your patronage. 



EGGS FOR HATCHING. 

I guarantee all eggs shipped Fresh and True to 
name. I ship no eggs over three days old when they 
leave my yards. I can ship eggs only by express to 
any State or Territory. The utmost care will be taken 
in packing eggs so as to have them arrive in good con- 
dition, and to hatch every egg if possible. 

In ordering, if your postoffice and express office are 
not the same, be sure you give each. Order if convenient 
at least twenty days before you want the eggs. All 
orders filled in the order they reach me. Be sure to 
write your name plain. Send for price of the variety 
you wish and address, J. D. MARTIN, 

Bruce, Moultrie Co., Illinois. 



YOUR AVERAGE TIEN WILL LAY lOf) EGGS PER YEAR. THE SAME HEN, 

IF MY SYSTEM IS FOLLOWED, WILL CERTAINLY LAY 200 IN TUE 

SAME LENGTH OF TIME. THIS IS AN INCREASE OF 100 

EGGS. AT ONE CENT EACH MAKES A GAIN OF SLOG. 

THE GAIN FROM THREE HENS ALONE WILl 

PAY FOR 

The Key to kmM Poultry Raisiiif 

AND MEDICINE ENOUGH FOR FIFTY FOWLS AND TEN HOGS ONE YEAR. 

THEN YOIT SAVE YoUR CHICKS FROM GAPES AND ROUP AND 

YOUR HOGS AND POULTRY FlioM THAT DREADED DIS- 

EASE-<^HOr.KKA. ALL PERSONS HAVING HOGS 

AND POULTRY CAN AFFORD TO BUY MY 30OK 

AND MIXTURES. BUT NO ONE CAN AFFORD 

TO BE WITHOUT THEM. 

¥KE KEY ¥0 gaCCEggFaii POnMRY R^I?IN6 

AND MY THREE MIXTURES: 

Ilog and FoiiUry Cholera Eemedy, 

Gape Preventative and Lice Exterminator , 

And Roup Mixture 

MAKE A COMPLETE AND SURE SYSlEM OF HANDLING HOGS AND 
POULTRY SUCCESSFULLY. 

Ho^^ and poultry choiera remedy — Package No. i, 6d cts. 
Package No. 2, containing twice that am't., $i.co. 
Gape preventative and lice exterminator, per 
package, 50 cts. Roup remedy, per pack- 
age, 50 Cts. Sent to any address 
postpaid on receipt of price. 

Bruce is not a money order office. Send all monev orders drawn or\ 
the post master at Sullivan, Illi4Tois. Money sent in registered letter at 
mv risk. Checks or exchange received. Be sure and address letter to 
T. D. MARTIN, Bruce, Moultrie County. Illinois. 



